Am I the only one not liking current meta? Miracle Rogue is always nice, but it's the second expansion I'm playing it, and all the Reno decks make my eyes bleed. And basically, after MSOG hit the game... it's Pirate vs Reno, with each class making use of Patches and Reno / Kazakus in different ways. Oh, and Shamans, because they buffed them so hard that they couldn't fix the mess they did with last expansion without rotating out any card (I read on an official Blizzard post that 1 game out of 4 involves a Shaman deck... I wanna cry).

Standard was used to a great extent to move away from a stagnant meta that was killing the game, back when Dr. Boom was everywhere and you always found the same drops on every deck. Old Gods truly changed the game for good, but Gadgzetan looks like TGT: a couple of great drops used everywhere, and forget about the rest.

I don't know how they can fix it, but I don't find the game as fun as it was anymore. Maybe they should give us a tournament mode where you can use more than 1 deck just like the pro do, that would give non-arena people like me a different way to play from ladder hell.

In some respects, I think the meta is the best it has ever been. I really mean ever.

You have 7 different classes with top tier decks that can compete against all the other top tier decks. Warrior and priest have a couple of different top tier decks. Shaman has several. And there are options within all these decks, except perhaps the patches warrior and shaman. Especially with Dirty Rat. Even the miracle rogue comes in different flavours. Or at least it has several completely different ways to win.

So, I see balance and diversity, while you lump the 3 reno decks into 1 and the 2 pirate decks into 1 and see no variety. It's fine, I understand your point of view. For me, I'm fine with my anti-shaman shaman that doesn't beat the Cabal very often and never beats rogue or druid.

I get your point of view. Maybe I'm just fed up with the game concepts. I see 6 viable classes for laddering (paladin and hunter are basically no-no, and I struggled to find a decent laddering druid deck), I don't see many different styles of deck around, but probably is just a limit of Hearthstone way of play, not a problem of the meta in itself. It doesn't help that current control decks are really unfun matchups to play (the sooner Reno and Justicar rotate out of standard the better), and that the same aggro shaman concept has been ravaging the ladder for months.
Maybe I was just expecting something more radical with this latest expansion, something as disrupting as when Magic introduced multicolor cards and decks. I feel like Hearthstone is failing to develop new archetypes for decks, and this makes the game more static to my eyes. I think the most innovative calls where done on Druid so far, expecially with the ramp and token decks, but Blizzard failed to balance them within the framework and effectively removed them from the meta.
Again, it's just me. Probably I just need a different game (Duelyst is really promising btw, I should just play it more).

I still like the game a lot but I'm always lagging behind due to not investing to much. So I always struggle with building the decks because I don't have the epics nor legendaries, or the dust to craft them.

Basically means that I haven't got enough experience with the Meta to comment on current events. But at the next release Reno and everything before are getting cycled out, right? That's a bigger shift than the last (and technically first) cycle (Only Naxx and GvG got cycled out).
I'm not sure but standard loses Blackrock, Tourny and Explorers at the least, right?

Anyhooo, lot's of card based games are popping up everywhere. Probably a fitting game for everyone?

Standard will lose LOE, BRM and TGT, which will mean the meta will definitely shift A LOT when that happens.

I love the big shifts in meta. I think Blizzard handled the first one in a great way, and I'm hoping the next one will be as good. But I feel like every expansion adds too few cards to the mix, and that the ones that stick are often just overpowered.

I think about the loss of Reno and Brann and wonder how control decks will survive at all. But then I realise there's little point thinking about it because they will get replaced with something else.

I'm still playing enough arenas that I get to buy the adventures for free and buy 50 packs for each expansion. I think I'm only missing one legendary that I would want (the 3/4 mage one that copies a card and puts it in your deck) and I have enough dust should I really want it. But yes, if you don't play arenas or don't play the game at all as much as me, then the free to play experience isn't the best.

I still don't understand why no one plays Magic Duels. It's completely free and unlike Hearthstone, by doing my daily quest every day, I just "bought" the entire Aether Revolt set and still have enough gold left over to buy the next expansion even if I didn't play again until then.

The downside is, there is quite the new player catch up issue. So many sets now, and nothing has rotated out at all. So if you started now, you'll be struggling against everyone.

On the plus side for the new player, at the low ranks, you are matched up against I don't know what. Idiots, 7 year olds, not quite sure how to explain the plays you see.